Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Brian Olive — who came into the Cincinnati music scene from nearby southwestern Indiana with his former band The Greenhornes in the ’90s — is set to release his second solo effort, Two of Everything, early next month. The album is being issued June 7 by the Alive Naturalsound imprint, which issued Olive’s 2009 debut. Click the arrow above to hear the new LP track “Left Side Rock. Olive’s touring for the album begins next week in the south (Texas, Florida, etc.), leading up to his special appearance at the massive Bonnaroo music fest in Tennessee, where he’ll join the legendary Dr. John as part of an all-star jam session.

Legendary musician/poet/artist schedules May 17 stop in Cincinnati

Contemporary Arts Center has officially announced that Patti Smith will perform The Coral Sea with daughter/pianist Jesse Smith on May 17, in connection with her CAC exhibit, also called The Coral Sea, that opens the next day and features work not previously seen in the U.S.

At the concert, Smith will also play selected material from throughout her career.

The CAC website says that "The Coral Sea performance work found its beginnings from Smith’s 1997 book of the same name, her requiem to her dear friend Robert Mapplethorpe (who took the cover photo of Smith’s debut album, Horses, among his many other accomplishments).With music arranged and performed live by Kevin Shields — of heralded British shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine — two separate performances were held at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in June 2005 and September 2006. In 2008 those performances were released as a live album."

Mapplethorpe's own posthumous photography retrospective at CAC, 1990's The Perfect Moment, became a major controversy when cultural conservatives led by now-retired Sheriff Simon Leis tried to shut it down for obscenity. In a famous trial, a jury sided with the CAC. The concert venue and ticket information will be announced soon at www.contemporaryartscenter.org.

I first wrote about Smith's art show coming to the CAC in CityBeat last year here.

Cincinnati music’s most iconic figure, Bootsy Collins, is gearing up to release a new album this spring, the funkmaster’s first new material in five years. The guest list on Tha Funk Capital of the World is stacked with superstars from various fields, not just music. Along with Hip Hop legends Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and Chuck D (who all perform with Bootsy on one track, “Hip Hop @ Funk U”), eclectic banjo master Bela Fleck and fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bobby Womack, the 16-track collection also features such non-musical figures as Al Sharpton, Tom Joyner, Dr. Cornel West and actor Samuel Jackson. Funk Capital has an April 26 release date.

Hamilton native talks to 'Spin' about why one of Cincinnati's greatest bands is returning

The Afghan Whigs first show in America in 13 years takes place Sept. 22 in Asbury Park, NJ, heading up a killer lineup at the I'll Be Your Mirror fest, presented by All Tomorrow's Parties. The fest is being curated by ATP and the Whigs' frontman Greg Dulli, whose first selections for the other acts on the bill was released last week. Dulli's picks: comedian Louis C.K., The Roots, Jose Gonzalez, Mark Lanegan, The Dirty Three, The Antlers, The Dirtbombs, Sharon Van Etten, Emeralds, Vetiver, Quinton and Miss Pussy Cat, Charles Bradley, Reigning Sound, a DJ set from The Roots' ?uestlove and Scrawl, the Whigs' Columbus-based pals (might Scrawl singer Marcy Mays reprise her vocal turn on the Whigs' classic, "My Curse"?). The show will also feature bands like Autolux, Hot Snakes and The Make-Up, part of the lineup chosen by ATP.

Greg Dulli gave Spin an interview and a little insight into the band's decision to get back together. In the interview, Dulli jokes about doing a set of all new songs at the reunion shows ("Oh, we're playing all new material," he says. "No old songs, just new stuff we’ve come up with. Wouldn’t that be amazing?") and says he finally got the bug to reunite after hanging out with bassist John Curley (who still lives in Cincy) and guitarist Rick McCullom (who is in Minneapolis). He also said when they first got together to rehearse, right before Thanksgiving last year, "the hair on the back of my neck stood up."

The article says Dulli was "cagey" about revealing
whether or not the band would do any other shows in the U.S. (the band is
doing four dates in Europe beginning with the May 27 I'll Be Your
Mirror festival in London). But in another just-published interview — with the great music site The Quietus — Dulli said the band will probably do "at least" another 20 shows in addition to the five announced. (Fingers-crossed, Cincinnatians!)

Touring the country in a van is not for softies. It's a daunting proposition for even the heartiest, scrappiest bands (see Henry Rollins' melodramatic yet entertaining Get in the Van for proof). But for anyone with a rusty Econoline and a rag-tag group of fellow-minded musical miscreants, it's a sort of birthright that's there for the taking. It's also a definite American rite of passage.

Cincinnati singer/songwriter's acting debut to world premiere at prestigious film festival

Later this month, successful Cincinnati singer/songwriter Kim Taylor will be headed to Park City, Utah, but not as part of any kind of concert tour. Taylor will be attending the annual Sundance Film Festival, one of the world's most prestigious film events, along with the other actors and participants from the new movie, I Used to Be Darker. The film was co-written and directed by Matt Porterfield, whose previous work, Putty Hill, drew scores of rave reviews.

Despite it being her first foray into acting, Taylor has a leading role in the film, playing a musician named Kim whose marriage and relationship are falling apart just as her troubled niece shows up on her doorstep looking for a place to crash. Taylor's husband in the film is played by Ned Oldham, brother of cult music star Will Oldham and also a musician (along with solo work, he's the singer for the bands The Anomoanon and Old Calf).

Taylor knew the film's screenwriter, Amy Belk, from when she attended college in the ’90s in her home state of Florida.

"I met Kim Taylor in the ‘90s when we were both teenagers at Bible college in Florida, shortly before I got kicked out and she flunked out," Belk writes in the press materials for IUTBD. "She is the only person I still know from that strange, balmy with a chance of fire-and-brimstone time. I’ve followed her music career through the years, and shared her songs with Matt (Porterfield) when we started writing. He fell for them like I knew he would, particularly 'Days Like This' and 'American Child.' Even before Matt met Kim and had her read for the role, her music and grace informed the story we were crafting. In many ways, Kim was Kim from the start."

Taylor performs "Days Like This" (which was covered by Over the Rhine on their The Long Surrender album) and "American Child" (from her album Little Miracle) in the film. She and Oldham will be featured on the movie's soundtrack alongside tracks from several acts based in Baltimore, Porterfield's current hometown, including The Entrance Band, Dope Body and Dustin Wong.

Nationally recognized as one of the best record stores in the Midwest, it makes sense that Northside’s Shake It Records would go all out on the forthcoming global Record Store Day (April 16). Besides offering many of the limited-edition RSD exclusives being released by everyone from Blitzen Trapper, Yeasayer and Built to Spill to Television and The Velvet Underground (for the full list of exclusives, click here), the store/label is also issuing its own exclusive release from Shake It recording artists Wussy. And they’ll be hosting an in-store appearance by modern Hip Hop hero Talib Kweli.

Area label Sol Records is taking pre-orders now for the Dallas Moore Band’s next release, Hank To Thank, culled from the locally-based Country crew’s sessions one year ago with longtime Willie Nelson guitarist Jody Payne at the site of Cincinnati’s Herzog studios where Hank Williams laid down some of his early, big hits.

The two established music events coincide with Cincy's innaugrual Bunbury festival

The Bunbury Music Festival in Cincinnati falls on the same weekend as two other big regional music fests, one 100 miles to our south and the other about 300 miles northwest of the Queen City. Like Bunbury, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago and the 10th annual Forecastle fest are happening July 13-15.

In theory, the proximity (geographically and time-wise) should lead to some crossover, as artists from one event might run their tour route to the other cities to score some of those big festival performance fees. (MidPoint's 2011 fest in Cincy, for example, shared some acts with the somewhat nearby Pygmalion Music Festival in Urbana-Champaign, Ill.) But so far that hasn't happened with Bunbury, which seems to be focusing on more mainstream "Alternative" artists, as opposed to Pitchfork's more esoteric lineup and Forecastle's endearing mishmash of styles.

Pitchfork tickets go on sale next Friday, March 9, at noon via the Pitchfork fest's site here.

So if you could go to any of the three festivals, based on the info available so far (and not counting travel costs and lodging arrangements) which one would you attend — Cincinnati's, Louisville's or Chicago's?